Method of producing engraved printed sheets



y 1941- R. GATTO- V 2,247,878

METHOD OF PRODUCING ENGRAVED JERINTEUSHEETS Filed Sept. 2s, 1940 -TWV:

INVENTOR. 4

Patented July 1, 1941 nnrrs e rrics Robert Gatto, New York, N. Y.

Application September 28, 1940, Serial No. 358,905

1 Claim.

This invention relates to methods of producing engraved printed sheets, and more particularly to an arrangement of sheets for printing and drying them on a quantity basis.

The art of producing engraved printing, especially for intaglio work, generally includes the steps of printing and embossing in one operation, and then drying on a conveyor belt moving through a suitable oven. It has generally been the practice in quantity production to employ a unit of two plates or dies for simultaneously producing two printed impressions, of either identical or different subject matter, as expediency would dictate. In the conventional arrangement the two dies are in adjacent tandem relation and oppositely disposed, that is, the letters on one are inverted with respect to those on the other. With such a set-up the embossed sheets are obviously arranged, immediately after the printing operation, in sets of two, also in tandem relation and with the printed matter therein oppositely disposed.

In the oven drying process of the said conventional method, the embossed sheets are necessarily placed on the conveyor belt in similar manner, the top edges of a set of two sheets being preferably in abutting relation. The positioning of the sheets on the conveyor in this fashion is a time-consuming job, requiring considerable care and experience. this arrangement is inherently wasteful of space in that when the sheets are aligned longitudinally on the conveyor, there are substantially large spaces separating the printed matter on successive pairs of sheets. the printed matter covers a substantially large area of the sheet, but also in the case of letterheads where the printed matter is positioned near the top of the sheet.

Because of the space-consuming character of the conventional arrangement of sheets above referred to, large drying ovens must of necessity be employed, which obviously entails a relatively large initial investment and high overhead. It is to a large extent due to this factor, as well as the labor cost involved, that engraved printing is relatively high in cost.

It is primarily within the contemplation of this invention to eliminate the aforesaid shortcomings in the production of engraved printing, and this I have accomplished by a novel and hitherto unknown arrangement of sheets in the printing and drying steps; and by employing the method of this invention I have succeeded in speeding up Furthermore, 51

This is true not only where printed matter far below that possible with other commonlyemployed methods.

Another object of my invention is to accomplish the aforesaid objectives by an extremely simple method and in a manner that will permit or the use of smaller drying ovens and conveyor belts, and increase the productive capacity of presently employed ovens and belts.

Other objects, features and advantages will appear from the drawing and the description hereinafter given.

Referring to the drawing,

Figure 1 is a plan view of two letter heads arranged in accordance with a preferred method of practicing my invention, the dot-dash lines diagrammatically representing a printing block with two laterally adjacent dies.

Figure 2 is a plan view of an arrangement of letter heads according to my invention, positioned over a conveyor belt represented by dotdash lines, and

Figure 3 is a side elevation of Figure 2.

The drawing illustrates a preferred method of practicing my invention in the production of letter heads. The printing and embossing step may be performed simultaneously on the two laterally adjacent sheets ill and H by means of a block #2 containing two dies or plates thereon for producing the impression l3 on the sheets in well known manner. Although the printing can be performed, if desired, on single sheets, it is preferred that it be done simultaneously on two or more sheets in parallel adjacent relation. It will be noted that the printed matter on both sheets are disposed in the same direction, and that it is the lateral edges 54 and E5 of the sheets that are in adjacent relation and not the top edges as in the tandem arrangement employed in the conventional systems above described.

The printed and embossed sheets, while still wet, are placed on the conveyor belt it moving in the direction of the arrow through a drying oven not shown. The sheets are arranged preferably in two parallel rows, or more if desired, the sheets in each row overlapping each other and leaving exposed only the moist printed matter in. The upper edge I! of each sheet is just below the lowest line of the printed matter, whereby the blank portion below the printing of each sheet, except the last, is completely covered by the subsequent sheet.

It is thus apparent that with this arrangement a very substantial portion of the drying belt area is efiectively utilized to support drying printed production and reducing the cost oi engraved I mat er,only he exposed p n is of each sheet, except the last, containing printed matter. Hence by employing this method of arranging the sheets, the conveyor belt obviously has a far greater efiective drying surface than is possible with the conventional methods heretofore employed. No particular skill is required in arranging the sheets as indicated during the operative movement of the belt, as all the sheets are arranged uniformally right side up, and not alternately in oppositely disposed positions as in the older method; and the sheet arrangement of this inventiton renders it relatively easy for one employee to conveniently handle several parallel rows of sheets. For a given productive capacity, a smaller oven and belt can be employed, thereby cutting down the initial cost and the upkeepor by using the larger ovens employed in the conventional engraving system, a far greater production can be obtained. The reduced capital investment, lower labor cost, greater production and lower overhead resulting from the use of this invention hence makes possible the production of engraved printed sheets at a fraction of the cost of that of the conventional method employed in the art.

It is of course understood that other adaptations of the method of this invention can be employed beyond and in addition to that hereinabove described, all within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is:

In a method of producing embossed printed sheets, the steps of operatively applying embossed impressions simultaneously on corresponding portions of a plurality of sheets, and, while the embossed impressions are still moist, arranging said sheets in a plurality of parallel longitudinally disposed rows, with the embossed matter on all sheets being disposed in the same direction, the embossed matter on laterally adjacent sheets being in substantial transverse alignment, the sheets of each row successively overlapping each other and leaving exposed only the moist embossed matter, and moving the sheets while in said last described position along a predetermined path in preparation for the drying of the said embossed matter.

ROBERT GAT'I'O. 

